The Career Development Program (CDP) is an important component of this Leukemia SPORE application and the national SPORE program because it will assure a cadre of academic faculty who are translational scientists dedicated to discover and apply new approaches to understanding the etiology and epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of patients with leukemia. The goal of our CDP is to recruit, provide training and guidance {i.e. mentor and develop) and retain academic faculty level physicianscientists, clinician-investigators, and laboratory-based scientists who will dedicate their endeavors to leukemia translational research. Our focus will be primarily on recruitment of assistant professors. We will place special emphasis on recruiting qualified women and minorities. Indeed, all three of the candidates chosen for the first year positions are women and one is a minority. While any area of translational leukemia research will be considered, we will place special emphasis in our areas of strength which include human cancer genetics, animal models and preclinical and clinical experimental therapeutics. The goal will be to fund three positions at $100,000 each for one to three years. Applications will be solicited from all departments and centers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) and by the SPORE Administrative Core. They will be screened for eligibility and diversity by the CDP Leader before formal review begins to assure that the pool contains qualified women and minorities. Applications will be judged based on the potential of the candidate, the strength of the proposed research and the appropriateness of the mentors. Applications will be formally reviewed, scored and ranked by members of the SPORE CDP Steering Committee. Final selection will be made by the CDP Leader and SPORE Program Director in consultation with the SPORE Executive Committee. Each position will be funded for one year, with eligibility for a second and third year dependent upon satisfactory annual progress following evaluation by the awardee's co-mentors and the SPORE Executive Committee. The SPORE will provide $150,000 annual funding to the program; $150,000 annually in matching funds will be provided from the OSUCCC. Success of the program will be judged by the quality, of the science generated by the awardees, their success in obtaining external peer reviewed funding, their success in academic advancement and their retention in academia and leukemia translational research.